June 2004
Danny Howell writes:
Band Night at Kingdown Community College last Wednesday proved a big success with the students, both on and off stage. £120 was raised, of which £80 will be donated to Amnesty International, the remainder going to the Kingdown students’ Duke Of Edinburgh Award China trip.
Opening the gig were Not Yet, who are Tom Hiscocks (vocals), Matt Carter (lead guitar), James Arthur (bass), and Henry Appleby (drums). They have been together since last September but the band was previously in existence with various members being added as time progressed. Their set, best described as metal rock, featured four numbers: The Intro, Random Solo, Why? and All These Days, with their finale being a cover of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ Fortune Faded.
Next up were Extremely Flammable, who are three 12 year olds: Lewis Noble (lead vocals and guitar), James Payne (vocals and bass), and Luca Castelli (drums). Luca is a power house percussionist and one to watch out for – he’s more than likely to end up being the drummer in a huge rock band in a few years time.
Their set featured three of their own songs: Not My Fault, When You See, and Human Shadow, which they followed with two covers: Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana) and Basket Case (Green Day).
Third on the bill were Missing Sentence: Stu Wickens (lead vocals), Andy Sutton (guitar), Luke Phillips (bass), and Rob Wickens (drums). They have been together for about eight months. Free Of All, Second Chance and PA, all self-penned, were their opening numbers, with Stu banging on a bongo drum, and then followed a cover of the J. Geils Band’s Centrefold, which went down extremely well with the crowd.
Drummer Rob Wickens had by now stripped to the waist and looked very much a rock star with his tartan patched strides. The set finished with Once Again and Hide And Seek, and vocalist Stu commented afterwards that the gig had been “pretty cool.â€
Next on were No Manual Labour, who started with two of their own compositions: Kane Wilson and Tiny Penis. NML are Kane Thomas (vocals and guitar), Tim Arnold (vocals and guitar), Pete Holman (bass), and Fabian Shingleton (drums).
Pete Holman, in black leather trousers with pointed leather boots to match, took lead vocals and undertook some heavy guitar work for a cracking cover of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, which took the head-bangers to new heights – eat your heart out Geezer Butler and Ozzie Osborne!
By now, Keiran Thomas was guesting on drums and the rest of NML’s set was three self-penned songs, all untitled, and all being aired for the first time. Mia Burgess was guest vocalist on one number. Unfortunately Kane Thomas twice had strings that stretched, which resulted in him using three different guitars for the latter part of NML’s performance.
Headlining were Zero Hour, who have been playing together since last Christmas. They are Matthew Mitchell (vocals), Anthony Edgar and Nik Blagdon (guitars), Andrew Jackson (bass) and Jack Woods (drums). All have just left school except Jack who is staying on to do his A Levels.
Their set of 12 numbers was well received, with Mitchell constantly moving about the stage like a cat on a hot tin roof. Eight of the songs were self-penned efforts by the band, including their opening number Stick Around, and a personal favourite called Muggy Molly – a recalling of the time when two of the band and a friend went into a London pub not knowing it was a transvestite bar. Needless to say, when they realised their mistake, they quickly drank up and left!
Wednesday’s gig was the first time Zero Hour had played all their own songs in a single set. Their repertoire also included four covers, namely: Down (Blink 182), Franco Un-American (NOFX), Time Is Running Out (Muse), and just for fun, they did Sk8er Boi (Avril Lavigne), which is distinctly out of keeping with the band’s ethos and slightly embarrassing for them, but they got away with it. They played out with a long finale of another of their own songs, Been And Gone.
Their accomplished set showed what a close knit band they are, as explained by guitarist Edgar afterwards: “We seem to have a mutual understanding of what each other are doing. We can put things together very quickly. We only learned tonight’s covers yesterday but we picked them up straight away. Tonight wasn’t our best gig yet but we were pleased and we could see everybody was having fun too.â€
Kingdown Head, Mrs Sheelagh Brown, who was at the gig but well away from the amps and speakers said “Kingdown allows young musicians to perform like this, because there are very few venues elsewhere in Warminster for them, and they can make as much noise as they like here. These young people are very talented and they know how to enjoy themselves. It’s great.â€
